90 101 Learning from the Shepherds

I stand. Emmanuel, Emmanuel, we call your name. Emmanuel, reveal in us, we call your name.

Luke 2 verse 8. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Today, in the town of David, a saviour has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Amen.

I would be glad if you would have your Bibles open at that passage. The problem when you've been a fairly long time in a pastorate is that the actual nativity narratives in the Gospels are fairly brief. And when you come to what will probably be the 60th address from the nativity passages, you wonder to yourself, even before the Lord, as you acknowledge the inspiration of his word, Father, what new is there to say? We've been down this track before.

We've had the wise men and sifted them. We've had the shepherds and sifted them. We've come at it from this angle and from that angle.

But the despair of the preacher is sometimes helped by that lovely old hymn which says, Tell me the old, old story, for I forget so soon. One of the great arts of teaching, as a West Indian pastor once put it, is to tell them, then to tell them what you've told them, and then to tell them again. Well, here we are, these shepherds who tell us a lot of what we already know, but maybe within the grace of God there's something fresh also for us to glean.

Learning from the shepherds. Let's go to Bethlehem. That's what they said in verse 15.

Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. I love the downs just up from the northern tip of our town here. The downs are a pastoral scene with their sheep.

One dear friend last year bought me as a very acceptable Christmas gift a history of the English downs and some of the colourful characters that have been shepherds on the downs. And there's something noble about the profession of a shepherd, but it had somewhat sunk into a profession in the days of our Lord Jesus when its nobility had been forgotten. They'd forgotten the fact that Jacob was a shepherd and that Moses had been a shepherd and that the illustrious David had been a shepherd.

And shepherds actually in the days of our Lord were often restricted from entry into the temple because looking after sheep, well, it was an unclean business and it made them ceremonially impure, unworthy of coming into the presence of the Lord. So it's with that in mind that we turn the spotlight of the Word of God once more onto this particular passage within the Word. And we think of these group of men.

And there were shepherds, verse 8, living out in the fields. Or as the lovely A.V. puts it, there were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Ordinary folk, not the type of person who perhaps would have been invited to Christmas parties had they had a similar sort of thing prior to the advent of our Lord Jesus.

And yet when the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and thinking about the type of person who actually enters into the kingdom of God, he says a sort of shepherd comment. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards.

Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things so that no one may boast before Him. And there were shepherds, a group of men.

Amongst the politicians, well, the Lord had spoken of the politicians in the first verse of this second chapter of Luke's Gospel, and in the second verse of the third chapter He'll talk about the priests. But the interesting thing is that when the narrative is set up describing the coming into the world of our Lord Jesus, we move from this phenomenal disclosure to this lovely little bit of narrative. And there were shepherds.

Not and there were politicians. Not and there were the theologians. But there were this group of ordinary, common, garden men living out in the fields.

The shepherd's life was a nomadic life. I'm reminded that when our Lord Jesus comes onto this earth, He will say in His maturity, the foxes have holes and the birds have nests. The birds of the air have nests.

The Son of God has nowhere to lay His head. I don't want to read out from the statement that there were shepherds more than one can actually justifiably do so. But it does seem to me that the Gospel, and indeed the God of the Gospel, always identifies with the poor, those who live out on the streets of Bombay.

Or Birmingham. Those who are the victims of the perhaps not so wonderful aspects of the last ten years of government rule, who've been discharged from mental hospitals and cannot find a lodging place where there is warmth and hospitality on a regular basis. As though the shepherds, just for a moment, stand for all those sort of people who we push to one side, but the Lord will never push anyone to one side.

He will count special those that we count ordinary. He will read value into those who seem to be completely worthless. There were shepherds living out, keeping watch in the fields over their flocks at night.

There is an interesting question put up in the Old Testament. It says, how shall a man please God? And maybe that is the question that you are asking this morning. How am I to please the Lord in my life? What spectacular thing do I have to do? It seems to me that these shepherds will answer the question that they are watching over their flocks.

They are doing the ordinary function that their profession would suggest was their responsibility. And you will please the Lord when you wrap the secular into the spiritual, when you understand the earthly as part of the heavenly. You say, what do I mean? Well, the question is answered in that one verse from Scripture, Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord.

How does an ordinary man or woman please God? By taking the thing that God has asked you to do or the place in which you find yourself in life, which is virtually saying the same thing, and fulfilling your responsibilities as unto Him. Just ordinary shepherds doing an ordinary job, but arresting the attention of the extraordinary God. How do you please the Lord? By continuing to be faithfully what you are as a husband or a wife, a single person with responsibilities to others, as a child with a responsibility to your parents, as a teacher at school, as anyone in the normal humdrum of life, doing what you can faithfully for the help of others and in advance of the service of the Lord.

It's interesting, isn't it, that when men in the Old Testament days were just performing the perfunctory task, one of threshing corn, another in the New Testament, a pastor just going into the temple, another one in the New Testament just mending nets. It's amazing how God took them from that ordinary activity and gave them an insight into something that was extraordinary, and Gideon becomes a great man of God, and Zacharias becomes the father of John the Baptist, and Peter becomes one of the boldest evangelists that the church has ever known. And there were shepherds, ordinary men, living in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks.

How do you please the Lord? By doing the job in which you find yourself properly and enthusiastically for His honor and for His glory. When these shepherds were in the fields in Bethlehem, it seems to me that we have the right to say that God had them very much in His mind. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, remember the story tells us that it is at night, and way back tucked in the Old Testament is that lovely prophecy from Isaiah, which says that the people that were in darkness have seen the great light.

Nighttime, darkness, shepherds, doing faithfully what they can do for their sheep, the attention of God being focused upon them, and the light shines, because God does not want such people to be spiritually in darkness, nor does He want you and I constantly to be in spiritual darkness. In fact, He doesn't want it at all. He says that it's men who choose darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.

But you see, as an example for you and for me, this special group of men, these ordinary shepherds who are in the mind of God and to whom God reveals His purposes, the possibility is that these shepherds actually were employed by the temple authorities. You see, those fields where David had played as a boy, where he had looked after his own father's flocks, those now have become the fields, the territory of the temple authorities. The temple requires a great number of sheep to be able to furnish its ministries.

And it might well be the case that I am not reading too much into the Scripture, that to say of these shepherds that they are of the caliber of person, as you will read later on about in Luke's gospel, of Simeon and Anna, those who are still waiting for God to do something, who believe that in the darkness that they recognize is across the whole promised land, nonetheless God will intervene and bring to fulfillment the predictions of the Old Testament Scriptures. Now if I am right in saying that, doesn't it seem reasonable? Doesn't it, may I suggest, sound just like our God that men who look after natural sheep in the employment of the temple authorities should receive information when the Lamb of God is born into the world? Ordinary men, not politicians, not the theologians, men who in darkness want to move towards the light, men who are prepared, given stimulus by the Lord, to seek for a greater revelation than they have had up to this point. These are the men that the narrative refers to as it simply introduces them almost with a throwaway line, and there were shepherds living out in the fields.

Aren't you glad? Because you can identify yourself with such. Mary says in the Magnificat that it is the way that God works to lift up the humble and to bring down the proud. She was an example of the statement in the Magnificat.

So are these shepherds, a simple group of men. But then let's move on in my address and let's consider an extraordinary matter, an extraordinary matter. Look at verse 13.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared. Nothing ever happens on Shakespeare Road. It's a dull road.

It's not like any roads in Goring or Durrington or Sharmondeen. Nothing ever happens until the living daylights are scared out of you as late on Friday night. When I turned my car into our short drive and suddenly discovered a taxi man coming across to me and says, get out of the way, governor.

Get out of the way, I live here. He said, it's about to go up. And I saw what he was referring to.

A car had caught alight. How? I don't know. Electrical fault? Some deliberate damage? I'm not sure, but there was a conflagration, a tremendous blaze, and down dull old Shakespeare Road comes this thundering great fire engine.

I've never seen so much activity at 11 o'clock at night. It's amazing how all the old ladies who live there could suddenly peer out of the curtains and have a look at the sight. Nothing much happens in Bethlehem.

I mean, a shepherd, it's an ordinary sort of job, isn't it? I mean, I see the shepherds as a sort of intertestamental version of the archers. Rustic men. Good men.

The sheep all right, Reuben? Oh, yes. Settle down. Tell us one of your tales, Benjamin.

Because the old Hebrews were good at telling stories. They were blessed. They didn't have ITV.

Not even its morphebal equivalent. In the Old Testament, reference is made to life as a tale that is told. That's a metaphor plucked from the manners of the shepherds, how they used to while away the hours of the night by telling one another tales.

Tell us a tale. Because, well, it's going to be very dull. It's going to be the same sort of night as it's always been.

Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appear with the angel praising God. The Guinness Book of Records has sold more copies than any other volume with the exception of the Bible. I would like to suggest to the publishers that they run a parallel copy.

Not the Guinness Book of Records. But the Dictionary of Most Unfortunate Expressions. I think I could offer them one or two myself.

But how about this? Demanding to be incorporated in such a volume. Look at verse 15. As the shepherds respond to what's happened, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.

Now, I'll concede that one wouldn't imagine that you get a great amount of eloquence from shepherds. Though it would be a qualified concession because David would stand out as an exception. Not every man, not every woman is gifted with words, is able to articulate the deepest longings and the deepest feelings of the heart.

That doesn't mean to say that spiritually they're inept. Sometimes they may have a great spiritual capacity, far more than those who are naturally gifted with words. Let's see this thing.

This thing that has happened. Can you think of anything less poetic in terms of the description of God moving into this world? I mean, John, when he makes mention, he uses that sublime description as he speaks of the entry of God into the world. The world was made flesh.

God came amongst us. And now, Isaiah will talk about Emmanuel and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and so forth. And Micah will tell you, But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, thou art little amongst the thousands of Judah, and unto me one whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

And when unsophisticated shepherds hear of God moving into this world, they say in a very forgivable fashion, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing. You see, theological understanding is something that will grow. And eloquence is a gift that may come or may not.

It doesn't really matter. The greatest requirement of Christianity is whatever social scale you find yourself at or presume yourself to be, that you do make a response to what God has done in Jesus. This, this thing, well, what is this thing that's happened that the shepherds have experienced, run through from the 10th verse down to the 12th or 13th, you'll find at least seven pivotal points.

Good news has been heralded. An angel of the Lord has appeared and the glory of the Lord shines round about the shepherds and they're terrified. The angel says, Don't be afraid, I bring you good news.

Joy has been released, a commodity that has not abounded in Israel not since the Romans took over the state. All the world will be involved in those events of this night, at least its repercussions. The angel of the Lord appeared, the glory of the Lord shines round about.

Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy. That will be for all the people. Bethlehem will be their nucleus of activity.

The focal point will be a little baby. And the intelligence that is being committed, that is being directed towards the shepherds, the information that they receive can be tested. This will be a sign to you.

And the birth will be marked by an angelic choir singing the Gloria. Put those seven things together and again think of the shepherds groping for words. Can you hear them? Benjamin saying to Ruben, let's go, let's go to Bethlehem, let's go to see, to see, to see what? To see this thing.

That you can't understand the doctrine of the incarnation is unimportant. Join the ranks of the club of the ignorant because we're all in that club whether we will accept it or not. And some, one of the greatest theologians of the church wrote a book, Why God Became Man, and having gone through that book time and time again, I'm still only groveling at the beginning of an understanding.

But oh, that you could learn from the shepherds that what God has done at Bethlehem should command from you a response even if theologically you articulate it in such a crude fashion. If only you will respond to the gift that has been offered, then that shall ever be the most important thing. Amazement will compensate for your ineloquence and a willingness to go be a fitting tribute for those who took time out to tell you.

And so the spotlight was on a group of men and an extraordinary matter which leaves us with an incredible mission. Verse 16, They hurry off and find Mary and Joseph. Hurry off.

No longer are they huddled together to keep out the chilliness of the night. Now they're purposely striding out towards the little, no more than Hamlet by our definition, from which they have come. This place known as the birthplace of David.

They move towards because they want to see what has happened. And maybe they pick up in the evening breeze something of the echo of David's own singing as with a harp. He plucks a little melody and he starts centuries before to say, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

So these shepherds, they go to taste and to see to discover for themselves the veracity of what has been revealed to them in that surprising night when it seemed at the beginning that nothing very exceptional ever happened around the city of Bethlehem. They hurry off and in our twentieth century we hurry off more for the shares of the old electricity boards than we hurry into getting a share into the kingdom of God. Fools that we are.

We concentrate more on our astrologers and our political pundits and sometimes there's not much difference between the two. Failing to appreciate that God has spoken eloquently through a babe who at this point in the story cannot mouth an intelligible word. And crude, unsophisticated shepherds respond to what God has deliberately let them in on having bypassed the politicians and the theologians.

They hurry. They hurry to Bethlehem. And will you note my dear friends in this incredible mission which has an entry point and a departure point there is no doubt let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about.

You see here is the bush beginning to burn again. No, I haven't made a mistake. I've taken you into the Old Testament because in the Old Testament things happen as far as God is concerned.

Sometimes he ignites a revelation. He causes a man to stop doing what he has been doing and actually this man also was a shepherd to pay attention to a bush that is burning but not burning away. And here centuries later the bush starts to burn again.

The context is slightly different but the principle is the same. And the shepherds will do a Moses. They will approach the bush and one might even dare to suggest they take their shoes from off their feet as they recognize they are in holy ground.

There is no doubt in their minds because the angel has communicated what has happened today in the town of David. Go, this will be a sign to you. Test it for yourself.

As the word of God comes to you and to me intelligent people as we may claim to be and says test it. When God speaks, he speaks authoritatively and he asks you to react on what he is saying. Sometimes I dislike Christmas intensely.

I wander down Montague Precinct. No disrespect to the charities that are represented. I hear blared over those speakers these traditional carols with such great theological truth and I know that it is washing over the minds of people who are not giving a fig to what is being said about the one who does not abhor the virgin's womb but will step into time and space and reveal God.

And we are more concerned about getting to the body shop on Marks and Spencers. Yes, you can learn. You can learn from these rustic shepherds.

They hurry off and they test the authoritative word of God and it is right so to do. There is no disappointment when they had seen him. Luke, sometimes you frustrate me.

Why couldn't you have put more details in? And then I think that Luke responds, man, because I want you to use your imagination. And I think of many a time when I have taken a young child in my arms and dedicated him, her, mum and dad before the rest of the church family here. The elation that has been in one's heart when it has just been a youngster.

An ordinary youngster. But multiply that by a thousand. Multiply the significance by ten thousand.

Think in terms of the Son of God. He who in the manger lies is he who built the starry skies. Use your imagination.

And then, you will start to understand what worship really is. As the unsophisticated, rustic shepherds tell you how to bow down before this Christ child and give him your life. There is no disappointment for those who come to taste and see that all that God has promised has been redeemed.

There is the entry point into Bethlehem and then there is the exit point. It is the story of the good Samaritan who goes in as the prodigal, who goes into the father's house as the prodigal and then goes out as the Samaritan to tell others as to what is happening in the father's house and to warn them about the dangers on the Jericho road. These men are informed as to what has happened.

They test the veracity of the revelation and when they had seen him they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child and all those who heard were amazed. The amazement of the shepherds becomes the amazement of the hearer. The awe of the shepherds becomes the awe of the people and I ask almighty God give me such an ability to testify to you that the awe that I sometimes feel and the overwhelming in my own soul shall be transmitted to others who will bow down and recognize you as you ought to be recognized and worship you in awe and in wonder and in holiness.

Those ingredients which are so missing often times from modern Christianity. Forgive the passion that I feel deeply. The shepherds, they returned.

They returned to the sort of people from which they had emerged. They returned with treasure to share. With a glory to communicate.

Our Lord called twelve disciples one of them a dud. But before he called these he already had a retinue. He had these aged shepherds and Simeon and Anna and the like these godly ancient people who still believed that God would move into this world and when they saw the consolation of Israel then they went back to communicate to other people that which they had received.

They become the precursors of the disciples the early church evangelists and the Lollards and the Wycliffe preachers and the class leaders of John and Charles Wesley and the booksellers of Charles Spurgeon and the humble OM teams in many a nondescript Hindu village. They become the precursors of the Tom Hamlins who dares to go into Kuwait or into the Gulf and offer Bibles not secretively but openly before the authorities. I give you these shepherds.

I raise my glass to these shepherds this Christmas and I ask that in their memory my life might catch some reflection and be a tribute to them. They return glorifying and praising God when they had seen him verse 17 they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. You see the increase in knowledge.

Let's go to Bethlehem and consider this thing. Now it's no longer a thing, it's a child. Now it's no longer just a child it's a glory involved in the child coming into this world.

They have begun to have some understanding that God has moved uniquely into space and time and they're growing in grace and in the knowledge of God and in this they are an advance on many of us moderns who do not know what it is to spend time day by day in the company of this Christ child thinking of him and allowing the years of his maturity to roll by and having the very delicious experience of allowing his words to so get into our personalities that we are changed into becoming a little bit of what he is. They grow in discernment and they return to their own homes. If what the shepherds have been taught reached them as a result to teach others how much more or you who have the complete revelation of who Jesus is submit to the responsibility to communicate to others about him.

These men were rustic they were not rusty they were simple, they were not stupid. They hear and they go they see and they tell. It's ever the way.

Please God let's learn from the shepherds. Let us pray. Just a moment for your contemplation on one I've shared.

I'm grateful for the hush that was over the congregation. The shepherds and the magi came and they worshipped the Lord Jesus. You and I are sons and daughters of our Saviour.

Royal sons of a royal king. Let's stand and sing this. 470 Sons of Fellowship.

I am pleasing to the King of Kings made to worship him. Lord we offer royal praise all our frankincense and myrrh. Lord we come in holiness.

Lord we worship you. O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our King.

390 O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our King. Let us whisper his name.

O wonderful Jesus our Lord and King. O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our King.

Let us whisper his name. O wonderful name. Jesus our Lord and King.

For he is Lord of all the earth. His glory outshines the sun. See him clothed in his robes of righteousness.

God's beloved Son. O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our King.

Let us whisper his name. O wonderful name. Jesus our Lord and King.